A great big

THANKS

to everyone who made our 2013 conference, on The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, inspiring, fun and, most of all, educational! 

A whopping 533 students, 42 faculty members, 20 staff members, four alumnuses, one retiree and two outside guests registered for yesterday's conference -- that's a grand total of 601 registered participants. Plus, another three classes arrived after registration ended. All in all, something like 600 students participated in this event -- either as speakers, performers, attendees or as conference support. Many of our faculty and staff were likewise part of the day, as session moderators, conveners or MC's, attendees or as conference support. ...THIS  is what community looks like!

MANY thanks from KCC Reads, the Common Reading Program at Kingsborough Community College!

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We are very pleased to announce the KCC Reads

Common Reading for the 2013 - 2014 Academic Year:

Eating Animals, by Jonathan Safran Foer

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Kingsborough's common reading program was inaugurated at a meeting of the Faculty Assembly in the Spring of 2001. Like universities across the country, we wanted to adopt a program that would cultivate a reading culture and foster campus community through reading, discussion, teaching and research on a single book. Since its inception, the program has indeed been highly collaborative, with participation of members from every part of our campus in events, meetings, debates, art projects, book nominations, and reading groups.

The mission of KCC Reads is threefold. First, the utility of a university common reading program is the way it not only fosters a spirit of community but can function to develop student skills, in terms of research and public speaking, critical thinking and writing, and leadership, as well as preparing our graduates for senior college or for the career they may enter upon graduation. And student enrichment is our primary focus: to introduce students to intellectual life and buoy their growth as critical thinkers, writers, speakers and leaders, and their development as socially responsible, civically engaged citizens. KCC Reads also aims to enhance and sustain campus community: through a campus-wide cohort that organizes events and selects the annual books, and by means of the broader collective work of teaching, reading and conducting research on the book of the year. Finally, the program engages a social justice agenda, both through research elaborating social and political themes in the books and through philanthropic, social justice and other volunteer work in Brooklyn, in wider New York City, and in the world beyond our borders.

To these ends, we organize an events series in which a large number of students, staff and faculty collaborate. Our first annual event is the Inaugural Lecture, where we officially launch the program and distribute the book for classes reading it. Along with a number of small events running throughout the year—film screenings, talks by faculty or invited guests, teaching workshops, student led roundtables, debates and discussion fora—we host The KCC Reads Annual Conference where students, as well as members of the faculty, staff and invited guests, present their work on the book through panel and roundtable discussions, posters and power point presentations, and as part of exhibitions. Kingsborough students also participate in the planning and management of this event, which culminates in a Keynote Lecture given by the author of that year's book or an expert in the field.

The conference involves two additional mechanisms of student support. First, the KCC Reads Social Justice Award is given to studens who present the best paper, project and art piece on a social justice theme. The award is presented at the conference and, when possible, by the keynote speaker. Secondly, we publish a student journal—Paideia: The Journal of KCC Reads—including outstanding scholarly and creative work in multiple genres. Any work a student has done in response to the book is eligible for submission.

Peruse the website, get to know the program and consider adopting the book for a class you’re teaching or joining the current cohort.

Read about this year’s KCC Reads selection, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot and contact program coordinator Maureen Fadem with any questions or ideas you have, about the program itself or how we might improve this website.

Copies of the KCC Reads book are available, for as long as they last, in the Office of Academic Affairs: M-386, ext. 5029.

KCC READS  is part of the Coordinated Undergraduate Education Initiative (CUE) at Kingsborough Community College, overseen by our Associate Provost, Dr. Reza Fakhari (M-386, 718-368-5029).